Looks like the jackals are already gathering in New Orleans, before the flood waters have been pumped away. The areas which took the worst of the flooding were the homes owned and rented by poor people, who have traditionally lived in the bottom lands of southern American cities, where the residents were subject to malaria, cholera and other hazards of life in swampland. Despite all the evidence that the Katrina disaster was made worse by disregarding environmental axioms about building in marshes, the speculators are clearly looking at the ravaged zones as one big building site, this time controlled by the right people. On the radio Thursday, a New Orleans economic development honcho was interviewed saying that from now on it was going to be a city for middle-class people, and another city employee rhapsodized about how new programs were going to turn all those poor folks middle class. (Tell me again about the rabbits, George….)
-more-